ATASCOSA COUNTY, Texas — County Commissioners heard a blistering earful Monday morning in Atascosa County, as a man who lives just 100 yards from the scene of a recent massive tire fire called for several county officials to resign.
Randy Schulze says the fire, which started March 6, is still burning and that he can’t even walk out the door of his house without being overwhelmed by the stench of smoke.
Reading from carefully prepared written remarks and referring to evidence he brought to offer proof of his concerns, Schulze said the massive fire, that consumed thousands of illegally dumped tires on Verdi Road just west of I 37 was a tragedy that was allowed to occur because of lax oversight.
Schulze told the Commissioners “It's disgusting and a total disregard for life, property, water quality, public health, and a clean environment and the lack of integrity and morality of county officials is astounding.”
Referring to a stack of related laws and regulations, Schulze said even though rural counties don’t have power over every aspect of the problem, there are plenty of ways the county could have intervened.
“There are many laws, statutes and codes book to ensure that tragedies like this don't happen. They must be enforced, but sadly, they weren't and an investigation should be performed to ensure this never happens again,” Schulze said.
Schulze wrapped up his remarks by saying “I demand the immediate termination of Commissioner Gillespie and Fire Marshal Garcia for gross negligence, reckless endangerment of property and lives, extremely poor decision-making ability, lack of confidence, insane enforcement of existing laws, and not being responsive to the will of the people in this part of the county.”
There was no action taken by the court on Schulze’s requests, as he spoke during the public comment section of the meeting, and the topic of the fire response was not on the meeting agenda.
But Fire Marshal Roger Garcia did discuss the matter later Monday, saying the county has been trying to bring the property into compliance for years, but the property owner has been steadfastly non-cooperative. Garcia said “Even if you tell them not to, you give them a lawful order, obviously they didn't care they were violating the law already,” adding “Nights. Weekends. We don’t have the manpower to watch it 24/7 and they weren’t stopping with the tires.”
Garcia said before the fire there may have been as many as 50,000 tires on the property. He said the county obtained a bid for a cleanup before the fire and it came in at well over $150,000.
Garcia said in a small community already stressed by the pandemic, there were no funds for the big job.
“This whole past year has been a budget nightmare with COVID,” Garcia said.
Garcia said enforcement against the property owner is crawling forward through the court system. He said they have already been through the Justice of the Peace process and are now moving on to a vote by County Commissioners to hire a remediation firm to abate the mess.
Garcia said he will be working to obtain bids within the next few weeks so that Commissioners can vote on the matter soon. Once the cleanup is complete, the process of paying for the work will move forward.
“The County Attorney would file a lien (on the property.) It's not what we would want to do, but for the safety of the community, if that's what it takes, it's what we have to do because we shouldn't pay out of our money for cleaning up someone's personal property,” Garcia said.
Garcia said moving forward, he will also push to change and improve some county ordinances. “We're probably going to have stiffer fines, stiffer penalties, quicker time frames and hopefully we will get more help from the state and help the community,” Garcia said.
Garcia also urged anyone who notices illegal behavior in their neighborhood to report the situation.
“If you know of neighbors with a mess, let our office know and we will do our best to correct the issue. There are a lot of other properties out there that need intervention” Garcia said.
While all of these things are developing at the local level, the state is involved as well. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has had an open case on the property and is in the process of moving a complaint through the court system.
Meanwhile, as the tire pile next door continues to smolder, Schulze said he is being forced to buy water for his livestock and personal needs, as his own water well has been fouled.
Schulze said when the pump on his well slowed to a trickle after the fire, he pulled the pump and found it covered in a thick, tar-like substance. He attributes the muck to runoff from the fire and he said he is waiting for testing to get answers to what is happening.